inventory management

How BIG is Your Inventory Responsibility? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted on August 23, 2018September 26, 2018 by Hayes Software Systems

Find your district’s total inventory value below to understand the scale of your inventory responsibility.

School districts own and support more inventory than ever. With that comes a large responsibility to track, manage, and audit your inventory to ensure you’re being good stewards of taxpayer dollars. Find your district’s inventory value below to understand how large that responsibility is.

Inventory management tools can ease the burden of this responsibility by making processes easier and more efficient. Talk with one of our experts today to learn how Hayes can help. Continue reading “How BIG is Your Inventory Responsibility? [INFOGRAPHIC]”

3 Secrets to Success from an Inventory Champion

Posted on May 1, 2018June 13, 2018 by Hayes Software Systems

By Greg Wright

When your district invests in an inventory system, the success of your technology adoption depends mainly on its users. Staff must use the system regularly for the system’s data to be accurate and provide value. We recommend that school districts have an inventory “champion” who continually encourages and educates staff to use the system effectively.

Greg Wright, Instructional Materials Coordinator at Leander ISD, has spent 12 years coordinating textbooks and instructional materials for 38,000 students at 42 campuses. During that time, he has championed the use of TIPWeb-IM to more effectively and efficiently manage the use and purchase of instructional materials.

We’ve invited Greg to write a guest blog post to share how a “champion” can motivate staff to effectively use an inventory system:

Continue reading “3 Secrets to Success from an Inventory Champion”

3 Strategies to Make Inventory Management a Daily Habit for Your Staff

Posted on March 16, 2018June 14, 2018 by Hayes Software Systems

By Morgane Le Marchand

Nick DePauw, Director of Information Technology at Patterson School District in northern California, knows the challenges of keeping inventory data clean. With 8 campuses, 3 district sites, and over 6,200 students, DePauw oversees over 14,000 assets in the district. In this guest blog post, he shares his tips for motivating district and campus staff to execute daily inventory management strategies in pursuit of clean data.

Continue reading “3 Strategies to Make Inventory Management a Daily Habit for Your Staff”

Standardize Inventory for Implementation Success

Posted on February 16, 2018September 4, 2018 by Hayes Software Systems

Standardize inventory data and increase the chance your software implementation will succeed.

By Morgane Le Marchand

Successfully implementing an asset management system isn’t just about software. You need defined processes in place to make sure that your new system delivers strong ROI. Before you even begin inputting inventory data into the system, it’s important to invest time planning how you’ll standardize inventory procedures and staff responsibilities. Why? We’ve asked Joseph Jacks, Chief Technology Officer at Tyler ISD in Texas to share the lessons he learned about the importance of standardizing data and processes.

Continue reading “Standardize Inventory for Implementation Success”

4 Reasons Your Homegrown Inventory Management System Will Fail

Posted on August 15, 2017August 3, 2018 by Hayes Software Systems

Your homegrown inventory management system isn’t a sustainable solution.

By Emily Frazier

You’ve put a lot of time and effort into your homegrown inventory management system. You built it because your district didn’t find existing software that met your unique needs. However, while the advantages of a custom-designed system can be alluring at first, the risks and costs over time exceed the initial benefits.

Many districts today are recognizing the headaches associated with maintaining their homegrown inventory management system are too great to manage. Instead, they’re opting for a third-party vendor developed and supported application. The result is greater transparency, increased efficiencies, and cost savings.

Here are four reasons to evaluate the value of your homegrown inventory management system:

Continue reading “4 Reasons Your Homegrown Inventory Management System Will Fail”

Think You Know What IT Asset Management is? Think Again.

Posted on April 11, 2017September 20, 2018 by Hayes Software Systems

By Kelly Jones

To understand what IT Asset Management (ITAM) is, you need to understand what ITAM isn’t…

Many school districts think they have an asset management system in place because they have one or many of the following:

Fixed Asset Systems: Financial professionals within a school district will most likely prefer a fixed asset system as the system of record since it relates to accounting practices. Unfortunately, the system only records acquisitions and disposal costs, not any information pertinent to campus staff, like where the asset is located and whether it’s available for use.
A Discovery Tool: Many school districts have a system that can discover physical assets and therefore believe they have an asset management system. The truth is, asset discovery is only a small portion of what constitutes ITAM. It isn’t just discovery, but also the tracking of the physical, financial, and contractual information and its changes throughout the asset’s entire lifecycle.
Asset Spreadsheets: Asset spreadsheets are utilized by many school districts. They allow a district to track assets and get some transparency into budgeting, but because the spreadsheets are created and maintained by each individual campus, there is a lack of process and standardization in formatting and naming conventions for the fields being tracked. This makes it virtually impossible to get a holistic, district view of assets in a consistent format, resulting in increased audit response times and inaccurate inventory data.

Continue reading “Think You Know What IT Asset Management is? Think Again.”

5 Tips to Protect Your Inventory Management Program from the Summer Slide

Posted on July 7, 2016June 14, 2018 by Hayes Software Systems

By Adam Rosenfield

You spent the year working toward tracking and managing your inventory more efficiently. You saw where changes in your policies and procedures have worked, audits were conducted on time, and loss rates are decreasing. But if you don’t pay attention to your inventory during the summer, all of the progress you made during the year could be lost.

Researchers have coined a term called the “summer slide” that describes the tendency for students to lose the achievement gains they made during the year if they don’t continue to stay engaged in stimulating educational activity. And it can happen to your inventory management program too if you don’t keep up your positive momentum throughout the season.

Continue reading “5 Tips to Protect Your Inventory Management Program from the Summer Slide”

The Dangers of a Homegrown Inventory Management System at Your School District

Posted on May 23, 2016June 14, 2018 by Hayes Software Systems

By Adam Rosenfield

Many districts today are replacing their homegrown inventory management systems in favor of a third party vendor developed and supported application. Delaying the implementation of a solution can be detrimental to your district’s operational efficiency, costing your staff time, and your district thousands of dollars every year.

Here are four reasons to evaluate the worth of your homegrown inventory management system.

Continue reading “The Dangers of a Homegrown Inventory Management System at Your School District”

Measuring Inventory Management Effectiveness: 5 Metrics You Need to Track

Posted on May 10, 2016July 17, 2018 by Hayes Software Systems

By Sara Arthrell

With the influx of technology at your campuses each year, it’s crucial to measure how effective your processes are for managing these devices rather than just assuming your policies are working. Each decision you make should be informed by data, and the result of these efforts should be cataloged for future reference.

When managing an asset inventory program, districts have a litany of data points from which to make strategic decisions to optimize people and processes. All this information can sometimes cause paralysis at your district and stall your program.

How do you know which data to track to get the most out of your inventory management program?

Continue reading “Measuring Inventory Management Effectiveness: 5 Metrics You Need to Track”

What Your District Needs to Know About Property Insurance

Posted on April 25, 2016June 13, 2018 by Hayes Software Systems

By Adam Rosenfield

Are you prepared if a major disaster hits your school district?

Your district is full of valuables within the walls of each building, millions of dollars’ worth of assets and materials. So if a disaster strikes, knowing exactly what you have could save your district a lot of money.

The first thing you’ll need to do if a disaster, like a hurricane, tornado, or fire, hits your district will be to produce a list of what was in each building for insurance purposes. But will you actually know what you lost? Continue reading “What Your District Needs to Know About Property Insurance”